Capitola Begonia Festival

The Capitola Begonia Festival is a fun event that the community at large can participate in. This water festival has been going on for over half a century and has had small turnouts of floats, to more than a dozen entry's. Read more about the Capitola Begonia Festival, and find out where to park, what is going on, below. This event is held Labor Day weekend in downtown Capitola, California.

Map of where the Capitola Begonia Festival is being held. There are metered spaces in the Monarch's Cove lot as well as down in the village. The cops are brutal with parking tickets. Take alot of quarters and you will usually pay $1-2 an hour for parking.

View Capitola Begonia Festival in Capitola, CA in a larger map

The Capitola Begonia Festival- A fun water festival and parade in Capitola

Brown Bulb Ranch 70's The Capitola Begonia Festival had it's origins based on the superb growing climate for the beautiful begonia. There were a number of growers, the most recently to depart from the area was the Antonelli Begonia Gardens in Live Oak.The growers were approached to contribute their flowers for this event, which is still done. The early beginnings were to extend the tourist season and of course get us acquainted with the lovely begonias. They are really quite beautiful.The Browns who own Brown Bulb Ranch and after which the shopping center was named, developed a hybrid from German and Belgiums root lines to create the "Pacific Begonia" which dominates the world markets. Their history is a fascinating one of local boys work hard,and did well.The big green area in the photo is the ranch back in the 70's. There was no Clares street or mall back then. That is the Sears building's red roof in the lower right. At the top is the old Dole Mushroom plant we all used to smell as we went down the freeway, as they used manure to grow those delicious morsels we cook with. That is highway 1 and 41st avenue at the upper right side of the photo.

A car in the making The event had it's genesis in 1954 and they proclaimed Capitola "Begonia Capital of the World." Now for most of us locals they remember the old slatted greenhouses off of Clares street, locally. The flowers were of no interest to the growers, as their product for market, was the bulb. An astute local, Peggy Mathews, who staged the Capitola Water Follies, noticed the lovely flowers going to waste and inquired about picking them. Begonia's you see are not a flower that does well cut, and was not the Brown's product, the bub was.
photo by Megan They did not even sell the plants as we buy them now, in full bloom.While we don't usually eat too many flowers in our diet, begonia petals are edible. They have a fruity acidic flavour and can be used in salads and ornamentation on plates. getting ready for the Capitola Begonia Festival

Peggy did her follies event on surfboards ( large enough now they would be paddle boards) and decorated them with the gorgeous flowers. Thus was born the event. The following years floats were established and things begun to blossom. While Peggy was a few years ahead of the official event naming, she certainly is the mother of the idea, for which we are all thankful.

The event is really a family get together of friends to build one of these. They are quite involved and there is a great opportunity for all to get involved. This is a fun team work event, for those young and old to be a Begonia Festival volunteer.

Get out, have fun in your community. If you are coming here to have fun, bring your best attitude, a good appetite for food and drink, and have fun. This is a fun walkable event with the Sand Castle competition just the day before. Should be alot of fun for all. There are a number of nice restaurants in Capitola and the surrounding areas. Park your car, bring your bike or pair of flip flops and leave your worries behind.

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